Thursday, May 15, 2008

That Tears It!

Starting pitcher:
Zo

As devoted readers of these posts know, I have been a defender of Brian Sabean in the past, although not an apologist. No More! In today's Chronicle, Brian Sabean is quoted as saying that the Giants have a chance in 2008. Now, I am quick to point out that saying to reporters and doing are two different things, and that Mr. Sabean has been a master of not talking about what he does, which is a good thing, but I am afraid this just crosses some kind of line. Here is my fear, if my trembling fingers can cooperate enough:

The Giants hang around .500 until August or so.

Only Arizona is significantly ahead of the Giants, because the rest of the west is kind of sucky, too.

The Giants are not 20 games out in the wild card race (although this doesn't seem likely, it is possible - the NL Central may be a real dogfight between the Brew Crew, Cards, lovable Cubbies and Houstros; and the NL East could be a showdown between the Metropolitans, Philthies, surprising Flomars, and maybe even Atlanta).

Then, and please have sensitive children out of the room before reading further, we trade for or sign a wily veteran to help us in the stretch run. Reggie Sanders?

Wily veterans clog up the offseason basepaths, as it were, to complicate development of a good, young, truly competitive team. Aaargh! Fans implode! Brian Sabean makes famous speech, "I am not a health hazard."

Rebuild, rebuild, rebuild!

Also, I thought Misch pitched pretty well last night. The Giants left 10 runners on base, for chrissakes, feebly missing a bunch of run scoring opportunities.

I'm glad you picked up this thread. I was aghast this morning when I read Bay City Ball, quickly followed by the Comical. IS HE FOOKIN' NUTS?

I think the economics of baseball has changed so fast in the last decade that men like Sabean have been left behind. The notion that Randy Winn has "value" because he's a good hitter and can play three OF positions is absurd on the 2008 Giants. Fred Lewis has proven that a "replacement" player can deliver that same "value" at a fraction of the cost with a potentially high upside. These are new ideas, brought about by sabermetrics and moneyball, things Sabean seems to be immune to. He reminds me a bit of Buzz Bissinger, Bob Costas, and their ilk, with their anathema to sports blogs. Deal with it, dudes, this is the new reality.

It is scary that Sabean actually said that crap. Does he really believe it or is he just trying to sell tickets? It is expected that players, and even managers, would say ridiculously optimistic things, but for a GM with a "rebuilding" team that has potentially the weakest offense OF ALL TIME, to say it is absurd. I don't want us to contend THIS YEAR. We must plan for the future, that is the ONLY PRIORITY. If we take any action designed to win now we will have really earned the label of laughing stock of baseball.

I dont have a problem with Sabean on this point, and think that Brian is a clever cat. I was pissed at first, but after thinking it over, he really lays out all of Randy Winn's skills and attributes in these quotes. Sabean knows that Schierholtz is the future and is down in AAA tearing it up, but there is no place to play him and right now. I think this Winn-hyping may trigger teams to propose a deal for Randy and Sabean should pounce on this deal pronto and take it.

A bigger problem I have with Sabean is the slow movement of pitchers through the minor league system. He should promote these kids at a faster rate. Guys like Snyder and Griffin should get the call up to AA. Romo, Pichardo, Matos and Hedrick should be getting some real work in at the AAA level. Lastly, there is no reason to have Victor Santos and Julio Mateo taking starts away from these younger legitimate prospects along with 34 yr old right handers(Grybowski) taking up valuable relief innings. It is understandable to have some vets, but theses guys are just useless. I was going to complain about not calling up Hinshaw, but there really is no need seeing that he was called up.

When merkin returns, it better be Yabu that is shown the door, or else...